The objective of the proposed research is to conduct an integrated program of experiments on the altruistic behavior of school-age children. The primary focus of the research is upon assessing the hypothesis that the child's perception of his own "deservedness" for a reward will determine the extent to which he will reinforce himself with that reward or give it up to another (i.e., be altruistic). Within the general parameters of this "deservedness" hypothesis the proposed studies attempt to discover those variables which are related to the subject's perception of "self-deservedness". Of interest in this regard is the relationship between the effort expended by the child in obtaining reinforcement and the extent to which he will share all or part of that reinforcement with an anonymous recipient. A related goal of the researchh is to compare the use of the "deservedness" criterion in children of varying ages and under varying circumstances. Thus, the research attempts to ascertain whether younger children thought to be more egalitarian in their sharing and moral attitudes adhere more to a "deservedness" standard in altruistic situations than older children, and whether such differences are influenced by variables like the value of the reinforcers to be shared and the "deservedness" of the potential recipient. Five experiments are proposed. All of the studies involve the manipulation of variables such as task effort, incentive value of rewards to be shared, and recipient characteristics to establish their possible effects on children's altruistic behaviors. The studies are primarily concerned with comparing the behaviors of children from different age groups under these various "deservedness" manipulations.